Rep. Alan Lowenthal is possibly the first member of Congress to display a gay pride flag outside his office.The flag was placed in the hallway of his Cannon House Office Tuesday – the same day the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Prop. 8. Another flag is hanging outside the Congressman’s Long Beach district office.The flags are displayed not only for solidarity with Lowenthal’s gay constituents, but also for all LGBT citizens, he said. Photo courtesy of Rep. Alan Lowenthal.

Rep. Alan Lowenthal is possibly the first member of Congress to display a gay pride flag outside his office.

The flag was placed in the hallway of his Cannon House Office Tuesday – the same day the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Prop. 8. Another flag is hanging outside the Congressman’s Long Beach district office.

The flags are displayed not only for solidarity with Lowenthal’s gay constituents, but also for all LGBT citizens, he said.

“My intention is to fly this flag until marriage equality is the law of the land,” said Lowenthal, 71, a Democrat, said in a press statement. “Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act are oppressive and regressive policies that label a large group of my constituents as second-class citizens and deny hardworking Americans the freedom to love and marry whomever they choose. It should not take a Supreme Court justice to prove that love is love.”

On Tuesday, Long Beach officials also raised a flag next to City Hall in solidarity with the gay community, That flag, however, was temporary and came down Thursday.

Lowenthal’s 47th Congressional District includes Long Beach and parts of Western Orange County, including Garden Grove, Cypress and Los Alamitos.

Members of Congress have permanent fixtures outside each office to accommodate three flags. Two spaces are reserved for the American flag and the member’s state flag, and the third slot is often used for a personal selection of the member.

Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, Vice Mayor Robert Garcia, Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske and many members of the LGBT community came together Tuesday morning outside City Hall and raised the gay pride flag as the U.S. Supreme Court had two hearings on marriage equality cases.Photo by Brittany Murray / Staff Photographer

LONG BEACH- Officials raised a gay pride flag over Centennial Plaza outside City Hall Tuesday to show the city’s “solidarity with the LGBT community” while the U.S. Supreme Court hears two marriage equality cases.

Mayor Bob Foster as well as Vice Mayor Robert Garcia and Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske raised the rainbow-colored flag during a Tuesday morning ceremony. Garcia and Schipske are gay and lesbian.

“We raise this flag in solidarity with the LGBT community,” Foster said. “The vast majority of the public agrees that gay and lesbian couples should be able to get married.

“Marriage equality isn’t just a legal issue. It’s a human rights issue,” Foster said. “My grandkids will look back on this and say, ‘What was that about? What were they thinking? How could you prevent a person from marrying someone he or she loves’?

“Hopefully the Supreme Court will do the right thing,” Foster said.

Schipske, who’s been in a committed relationship with Flo Pickett for 33 years, said marriage equality is personal.

“I’m in a relationship with someone I can’t marry,” she said. “This issue is particularly important to me. ”

Schipske also said “it’s nice to have the flag flying for two days, but for real solidarity maybe it should fly longer. Maybe this is an issue that should be presented to the City Council. ”

Foster, who under the city’s flag policy had the authority to fly the gay pride flag for two days, said he would think about flying the flag for a longer length of time, such as during Gay Pride month in June.

Jean Podrasky, a lesbian who wants to marry her partner, will be at Tuesday’s U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Proposition 8 in seating reserved for family members and guests of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr, the Los Angeles Times reports.The 48-year-old accountant and San Francisco resident is the chief justics’s first cousin on his mother’s side. Photo – Facebook.

Jean Podrasky, a lesbian who wants to marry her partner, will be at Tuesday’s U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Prop. 8 in seating reserved for family members and guests of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The 48-year-old accountant and San Francisco resident is the chief justics’s first cousin on his mother’s side.

Podrasky says Roberts knows she is a lesbian and introduced her along with other relatives during his 2005 Senate confirmation hearing. She hopes Roberts will meet her partner of four years, Grace Fasano, during their Washington visit. The couple flew to Washington on Sunday, the Times reports.

Podrasky obtained the highly coveted courtroom seats by emailing Roberts’ sister, Peggy Roberts, and then going through his secretary. She, her partner, her sister and her niece will attend Tuesday’s arguments on Proposition 8. On Wednesday, her father will take her niece’s place for the hearing on the challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act.

“I believe he sees where the tide is going,” Podrasky told The Times. “I do trust him. I absolutely trust that he will go in a good direction.”